101: Abortion Abolitionists

A militant wing of the anti-abortion movement has long looked to the 19th century anti-slavery abolitionists for inspiration and guidance. By comparing embryos and fetuses to enslaved people, religious leaders use the history of the abolition of slavery as a moral justification to rally against the bodily autonomy of pregnant people. In 2020, as a wave of racial justice movements swept the nation, a wing of the anti-abortion movement cohered nationally under the banner of abortion abolition. In the midst of a growing prison and police abolition movement in the U.S. following the murder of George Floyd, the Right claimed the legacy of “abolition” towards an entirely different end.

The anti-abortion movement first started comparing abortion to slavery following the passage of Roe. v Wade in the 1970s, in an attempt to link their campaigns to civil and human rights work. In the wake of the Trump administration’s support of the anti-abortion movement, a new generation of White male conservative Baptists, Presbyterians, and Christian Reconstructionists joined forces to advance the total criminalization of abortion. Referring to themselves as abortion abolitionists, this movement distinguishes itself from the self-proclaimed pro-life movement. Their leaders criticize this movement for being reformist, compromising with the Supreme Court (which they view as tyrannical and secular), and for failing to observe a conservative interpretation of the bible that calls for equal protection for the “pre-born.” 

Since their first national conference in 2020, abortion abolitionists have influenced public policy, rhetoric, and official platforms within the Republican party. They advocate for capital punishment for anyone involved in an abortion, including those providing and accessing abortion care services. State legislators in almost 20 states have introduced abortion abolitionist bills, and the movement has expanded into a network with groups in 21 states. Abolition is already a plank in the Republican Party platform in Texas.

In the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion abolitionist leaders claimed that the Supreme Court decision had not gone far enough. But they also acknowledged how the legal decision created opportunities to advance their views. “The Abolitionist Movement is picking up momentum – and national headlines – at a pace that would have seemed impossible only a few short years ago,” Abolitionists Rising, a national Abortion Abolitionist organization, published on their website this year.

Abortion abolitionists have strong ties with other sectors of the Far Right. They are deeply connected to segments of the Christian Right based on shared belief systems and membership. The movement draws on a theocratic reading of scripture known as Christian Reconstructionism, which advocates for Biblical law. For example, the abolitionist group in Pennsylvania, Abolish Abortion PA, which among other things provides guidance on the “Five Components of an Abolition Bill,” is led by members of the Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society, an overtly Christian Reconstructionist group. In addition, the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest protestant denomination, passed a resolution “On Abolishing Abortion” at their June 2021 convention. 

The movement also shares leaders with the 1990s violent wing of the anti-abortion movement, patriot movement organizations, the Christian homeschooling movement, and leaders of the Christian Right legislative playbook, Project Blitz. 

As the Abortion abolitionist movement begins to gain political and grassroots power, it not only poses serious risks for reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, it also demonstrates a victory for a broader militant theocratic strategy that aims to replace any remnants of democratic structures with Biblical law.